The summer is a great time to pull out the slow cooker if it isn’t already a standard kitchen counter fixture.

One summer energy-saving tip I’ve consistently seen through the years is that a slow cooker typically consumes only a couple of pennies of electricity per hour. I can vouch for the fact that my kitchen is certainly cooler when that is the main appliance being used.

Summer months are also great times to spot all the varieties of fresh fruit available. Make use of some of them in a new summer treat. While fruits are great to eat as, well, just fruit, they can also be successfully used in side dishes or main entrees. For convenience, I used canned pineapple chunks here, but if you would like to cut up a fresh pineapple, feel free. Just add about a half cup of pineapple juice to the recipe.

Look at timing sometimes in slow-cooker recipes. You will notice in this recipe that I included the pineapple earlier in the recipe but waited to include the peaches until later. That is simply so the peaches don’t turn to mush. You will get a much purer taste if you wait.

In fact, if you like, buy extra peaches and use as garnish around the sweet potatoes.